Nootropics Treatment: Cerebral Palsy

AdvanceNootropics.com has had yet another email request to review whether or not nootropics, specially the racetam family, have merit in treating the cognitive disorder known as, Cerebral Palsy. In this specific email, the person has a 5 year old daughter who suffers from a specific form of Cerebral Palsy.

As many people know, the racetam family has been investigated as a treatment option for many cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Parkinson’s and Dyslexia. In this blog post, we will be investigating the racetams as a treatment for Cerebral Palsy and go over the scientific evidence in this area. We would also like to disclaim that treatment with nootropics has not been approved or evaluated by the FDA as a medically viable treatment option to diagnose cure or prevent any disease in the United States.

What is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral Palsy is a group of neurological disorders that affects nervous system function such as: thinking, learning and sensory perception. It is also known that Cerebral Palsy can cause Hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen in parts of the brain which can result in brain damage.

Premature infants are much more at risk for developing Cerebral Palsy and there are several different types: Spastic, Dyskinetic, Ataxic, and Hypotonic. Cerebral Palsy can result in very mild symptoms to very severe and life threatening depending on the individual. This condition can also affect all or only different areas of the body (ex. left or right side of body only).

During pregnancy, or the child’s infancy, there are several things to avoid that can result in the child developing Cerebral Palsy. Obviously, the number one preventative factor would be to avoid drugs and alcohol or any substances that can damage the child during pregnancy. Other contributing risk factors can include: infections of both, the infant, or the mother during pregnancy and brain trauma or jaundice during the child’s infancy. Even if these factors do not come into play, it does not guarantee your child will not develop Cerebral Palsy.

Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy

The symptoms of Cerebral Palsy will most often be seen in the early stages of your child’s life. As early as 3 months old, you may be able to see the effects of Cerebral Palsy manifesting in your child. The symptoms will vary depending on which type of Cerebral Palsy your child may have or may be developing. General symptoms of Cerebral Palsy include some or all of the following.

Tight muscles; this may become more drastic or pronounced overtime

Abnormal movements

Paralysis; loss of movements in some or all muscle groups

Twitching or spasmodic activity; these may only affect certain areas or all

Tremors

Lack of motor skills

Learning disabilities; this can affect different areas and not relate to overall intelligence of your child

Speech impediment

Trouble hearing or seeing

Seizures and neuropathic pain

Trouble eating and swallowing

Stunted growth

Vomiting

Irregular or trouble breathing

These are just some of the symptoms in the long list of problems created by Cerebral Palsy. It can be a horrible situation for both the parents and the child. We will investigate further if nootropics can at least help the situation or reduce some of symptoms caused by this terrible cognitive disease.

Racetams as a Cerebral Palsy Treatment

First off, I’d like to say that in conjunction to the statement relating to the FDA as not evaluating racetams as a viable treatment in the US, that racetams will not cure Cerebral Palsy as you would have known about it already. We are strictly investigating them as a function to reduce symptoms and to help with the overall management of the disorder.

Luckily, there have been studies on Piracetam as a treatment for Cerebral Palsy. There is a well-known study labeled “Piracetam in the Management of Spasticity in Cerebral Palsy”. Here is a link to this study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/356288.

What did the study show?

In the study, Piracetam was administered to 1-5 year-old children with Cerebral Palsy. There were 3 groups administered Piracetam at different intervals and a control group to stabilize the study. Group C was given the highest amount of Piracetam at 120mg/kg a day. This group is the one that saw the highest increase in overall IQ and motor skills after treatment.

This shows that Piracetam may not be a cure, but may be an effective treatment or even preventative treatment for children suffering from Cerebral Palsy. In this article, we are just citing the research and are not recommending for you to self-diagnose or treat your child before talking to your doctor or a professional medical practitioner.

This is the only study on racetamic nootropics for the treatment of Cerebral Palsy. The other racetams have a similar and often, more powerful mechanism of action that should be investigated further. It is defiantly a field of interest in the medical field but there needs to be more research.

If Piracetam and the related family can even just help manage some of the terrible symptoms of Cerebral Palsy they should be investigated as a possible tool and preventive measure. The side effects are often very low and racetams have been proven to help prevent oxidative stress and free radicals in the brain.

I hope this blog post has been informative and the at the same time, it is a call out to researches to help move this area ahead by investigating some of the more advanced racetams. We offer free samples to researchers looking to advance this area. Please email if you are looking to further research this area.